It's no secret that five years of George W. Bush's economic policies have gone a long ways toward creating a two-tiered society of rich Ameri-cans and poor Americans, while the middle class - the heart of the American Dream since the 1930s - is shrinking: a few families going up, a lot more falling through the gaping cracks in our culture's fraying, outdated safety net.
In a column written in this space almost two years ago, I compared the new American economy with Argentina, a place where the poor have carried the bloated rich on their thin, straining backs for more than a century. An economics professor at a local university, not wishing to see his name linked with a notion so radical - that our own rich folks are cannibalizing our culture at the expense of the rest of us - dropped me a personal note.
"You are on the money," he stated, "but the model is Mexico, not Argentina."
Great, I thought, it's not some semi-faraway dictatorship - it's the half-hearted "democracy" right next door that treats its own poor so badly they flock here by the millions.
Fast forward 24 months and things have changed. For the worse.
For example, as I write this, it is estimated that more than 50 million Americans - that's one in six of us - cannot afford even basic health insurance now.
Almost twice that number cannot afford dental insurance.
This while our corporate masters bemoan the minimum wage, a whopping seven dollars and change an hour here, that these Dickensian greedheads say is "hurting" the local economy.
A society that can't, or won't, offer medical care to its workers and their children isn't a healthy society, no matter how many overweight success stories drive his-and-hers SUVs.
In related news, The Seattle Times picked up a troubling story from MarketWatch and ran it on the front page July 14; the gist of the article was, Americans pay more for healthcare per person than any other country in the world.
Of course, the Bush folks will tell you we have the best medical care in the entire world.
We don't, since once in six of us can't access it.
That makes it less than the best before you even consider any other factors.
But even if you can afford to go to the doctor, you pay more for it than anyone else in the world. Fifty-three percent more, an average of $5,267 per year, according to MarketWatch.
The same corporate criminals who surround Bush and his cronies would tell you medical costs have skyrocketed due to malpractice suits.
Not true, according to MarketWatch: "Malpractice suits have little impact on U.S. medical costs."
I was in Thailand last autumn. While there I fell and landed hard on the back of my head (no surprise here for regular readers). My arms flopped around like seal flippers for about 30 seconds as I barely held on to the little consciousness that is my daily fare. A taxicab ride to the hospital for foreigners in the little beach city where I was visiting Thai friends followed.
The presence of my Thai hosts got me right into a not-too-crowded emergency room.
Three X-rays, a doctor's physical exam, some comfort from a cute nurse and a week's worth of pain pills later, I got the word: I had a concussion and a possible "very tiny" skull fracture.
I didn't get the bill because my Thai friends grabbed it. But I saw it. The grand total for pills, doctors, X-rays and nursing comfort was $44.
Back in America I saw a doctor friend after hours - I can't afford health insurance currently.
She said the Thai medico's diagnosis was correct on all points. She also said a trip to the emergency room here, followed by the same treatment, would have cost somewhere around $1,800. Not counting the MRI that would have been ordered if I were one of the dwindling many who did have health insurance.
Now America has four times as many people as Thailand has. More hospitals. More costs. If the Thais could treat me for $44, maybe the same treatment here could cost $400, 10 times as much, without raising any but the fairest-minded eyebrows.
But it costs approximately 45 times as much.
There's something rotten here, and it ain't in the state of Denmark.
We live in a fading democracy being transformed into a corporate oligarchy based on the principles that the rich get richer and the poor should be seen and not heard. And not treated for their physical ills, either.
"If you can't afford medical care, then you don't need it" is the new American Way.
The Romans at the end had bread and circuses.
We've got the War on Terror and Ray ($80 million for seven years to play not-quite-championship hoops) and Paul (building a city for those who can pay for the privilege) Allen.[[In-content Ad]]
